Hi my name is Emma Ward and I would like to describe how Assistive Technology has helped me improve my life: in the education aspect of it
I am currently a wheelchair user and recently finished Secondary school due to the Leaving Cert being cancelled because of the current Covid-19 pandemic. During the 5 years of Secondary school I mainly used my own laptop to do my work as I was not able to write for long periods of time, I met my OT in Enable Ireland and explained to her that I couldn’t write for long periods of time. She then suggested to me that I could get a small laptop that was just for school and that it would have a voice recognition software on it called ‘Dragon Naturally Speaking’: it is a software that would let me speak into the laptop and it would type it for me. I am delighted at how Dragon has helped me to make my life in education so much easier. This improved my life in school so much: I found it so much easier to take notes and to do my homework.
This Assistive Technology will help me immensely in 3rd level education and in the future of my career. I am really interested in going to college and hopefully, I can study to become a journalist. The assistive technology will help me in both, as I can use it in college to take notes during lectures and it would be easier for me to use this technology when starting my career in journalism.
Thanks for reading.